In today'sWall Street Journal, reporter Amy Dockser Marcus writes about how an online community called PatientsLikeMe helped to inspire a clinical trial of lithium to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The trial, published in Sunday's Nature Biotechnology journal, was inconclusive.

Any prescription medicines that you have at home come with specific storage instructions: keep away from light, perhaps, or store in the refrigerator. But what happens if you happen to be, oh, staffing a mission to the International Space Station?

I've been watching a fascinating series on the PBS NewsHour focusing on the challenges of autism. The series, entitled Autism Now, is hosted by former news anchor Robert McNeil who tells the story of his autistic grandson.

Earlier this week, a joint plan was outlined by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where key strategies were developed that address preventing prescription drug abuse nationwide. A full outline of the plan can be found here.

As we've noted in previous blog posts, counterfeit medicines are becoming more prevalent around the world. Many foreign countries have been experiencing an influx of counterfeit drugs because they have a weaker regulatory regime compared to the U.S. and/or open drug supply system. In the U.S., however, our closed drug supply system has helped shield patients from the dangerous worldwide counterfeit medicines epidemic.

1. Talk about what it is for a company like Orexigen to become a member of PhRMA?

We're obviously excited because our goals align so closely with those of PhRMA. As a small company with a late-stage product, we understand the importance of creating an environment that fosters innovation, and becoming a member of PhRMA -- a group that has made innovation such a priority -- was a natural fit.

Judging from the agenda, the PhRMA Annual Meeting was about leaders: yesterday's Session started with an introduction by PhRMA chairman and sanofi-aventis CEO Chris Viehbacher, followed by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and others. All spoke about the importance of investment and the need to have clear, thoughtful regulation to nurture that innovation.

In launching this blog earlier this year, we said that our goal would be to create a place to share ideas, provide the perspective of America's biopharmaceutical companies and, most importantly, listen to you and learn together. Now, as we approach our annual meeting, beginning Thursday, we think it's the perfect time and place to create opportunities for members of our community to be an active part of the conversation.

Later this week, PhRMA will be conducting our 2011 Annual Meeting, convening stakeholders from across the spectrums of healthcare, policy and regulation. Here, I speak with sanofi-aventis CEO Chris Viehbacher - who also serves as the chairman of PhRMA's board, about one of his priority issues for the meeting.

Can you tell us more about why prevention is one of the three themes of this year's PhRMA Annual Meeting?